Atomic RIP - is InVision studio my new prototyping tool?

[thomas_cobb]

Hello all

I've been using Atomic for about a year as my go-to prototyping tool. I love it: nice integration with Sketch, robust tools for components, variable data, javascript action for multiple action results. I use Principle for prototyping more refined animations.

Sadly, Atomic is sunsetting it's prototyping product so I need to find a new tool. InVision Studio looks like the next best bet for all of these things. I've played with it for a couple of days and generally like it, but would like to try a few tools before I convince my company on the best new direction for our designers. Of note, our design team doesn't have a ton of experience coding.

Is InVision the best bet or do you like another tool better. Framer, figma or ______? I'd love your opinion.

thanks,

Thomas

[fredotan]

If you are looking for a prototyping tool that can do advanced, complex interactions that go beyond what Principle can do as well as utilizing variables, you can check out ProtoPie, I am working on this.

Variables were imo one of the strong suits of Atomic when I tried it.

[thomas_cobb]

@fredotan cool thanks, I hadn't heard of ProtoPie before. I'll check it out!

[Graeme]

@thomas_cobb yeah, it is sad news about Atomic. I wonder what they will make next! There are so many options still - check them out here. I hope the filters are useful in helping you compare tools.

I find Sketch, XD, and Figma are all quite similar. I like to use Figma in the browser, but at the moment, I've been playing with XD a lot - especially the voice prototyping features.

I wrote an overview about it here that may be helpful - it's a pretty solid product and works on Windows too.

Also, this timeline might help in some way, to see an overview of the industry in the last year.

[A Former User]

@thomas_cobb Hey Thomas, weird timing. I literally just updated an article that compares the best UI design tools.

Some notable changes since I first wrote it:

1. Framer Studio is now Framer X
2. InVision Studio has been released
3. Sketch now has prototyping features
4. UXPin released desktop apps, which is awesome because their web version is so clunky

I also compare some of the tools according to common search terms, so hopefully the article is now more useful to those such as yourself.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Btw: since you mentioned InVision Studio, I actually wrote a book about it as Graeme so kindly mentioned last week.

[Graeme]

@mrdanielschwarz Cool how you're keeping these articles up to date Daniel, I think this is a massive problem that could be worked on - many articles go out of date really quickly! And I wonder if publishing updates improves search rankings - it really should do!

[A Former User]

@Graeme @Graeme For sure!

Plus you can take a data-driven approach, i.e. target keywords you’re already ranking for.